US wireless carrier AT&T has announced impressive stats for the iPad Air's opening weekend. According to the carrier, iPad activations on AT&T were 200 per cent higher than the iPad opening weekend last year. AT&T didn't specify if the iPad 3 or iPad 4 is being considered as last year's launch in its stats.

“iPad activations on AT&T increased more than 200% over the past three days compared to last year’s launch weekend, driven by consumer excitement around the new iPad Air and the popularity of AT&T Mobile Share, which lets customers add an iPad to their existing data plan for just $10 a month," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility. "We also saw strong demand for AT&T Next, which offers customers an iPad for $0 down on the nation’s fastest and most reliable 4G LTE network.”

Going against its typical opening weekend strategy for devices, Apple didn't release opening weekend sales numbers for the iPad Air - presumably because the new iPad mini isn't out yet. AT&T, on the other hand, was happy to take the opportunity to brag sales on its network.

Furthermore, mobile app analytics company Fiksu is out with numbers on Monday saying the iPad Air is selling at a much faster pace than the previous models of the iPad. Specifically, the iPad Air has five times the usage than the iPad 4 during its launch, and three times the usage of the iPad mini's launch. Apple's strategy of launching the iPad Air in 42 countries, compared to 27 countries with the iPad 4, coupled with a slim design and new features could be thanked for increased sales.

“It’s having a remarkable opening weekend,” Fiksu says. A chart released by the analytics company shows just that.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said it's going to be "an iPad Christmas" when speaking on the company's latest quarterly earnings call. The new iPad mini hasn't even launched yet, but numbers and stats from AT&T and Fiksu point to Cook's sentiment coming true.